R&B singer J. Holiday lures listeners to "Bed"

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Packing some of the sexiest ooh's since Marvin Gaye -- a major influence and fellow Washington, D.C., native -- J. Holiday's sultry "Bed" is bouncing up two charts at once.

The track moves from No. 10 to No. 6 this week on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and climbs from No. 42 to No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Co-written by the Dream (whose credits include Rihanna's smash "Umbrella"), the song also claims the best audience gain of any single all year (up 12 million).

That's pretty heady stuff for the R&B singer-songwriter, whose first Music Line/Capitol album, "Back of My 'Lac," arrives October 2.

In addition to Gaye, Holiday, who grew up in a musical family, credits Donny Hathaway and R&B group Jodeci as inspirations for his career, which took root after a ninth-grade talent show. A second Dream-penned single ("Suffocate") is in the wings, and Holiday is sharing his bedside manner as the opening act on Keyshia Cole's national tour.

"I used to listen to music at home and say, 'I can do this,"' an enthusiastic Holiday said during the tour's stopover in Norfolk, Va. "And now I'm out here getting that chance."

Reuters/Billboard

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